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Who Dey Revolution Manifesto

Preamble

IN THIS TIME of perpetual Cincinnati Bengals incompetence and futility, with zero playoff wins in the nineteen seasons since the WhoDeyRevolution Godfather, Paul Brown, passed away in 1991 and handed the team to his fortunate son, the Despot, Mike Brown;

Introduction

WE, the members of the Who Dey Revolution, in our fervent dedication to the Cincinnati Bengals and fanatical desire to transform our hometown team into perpetual Super Bowl contenders, call for a popular revolution of fans to demand comprehensive reform to the managerial decisions and approach of Cincinnati Bengals ownership, management, staff and players, and hereby call for the adoption of the following Who Dey Revolution Manifesto:

Manifesto Demands

THAT the Mike Brown, Katie Blackburn, Marvin Lewis, along with every other member of the Bengals management, staff and personnel, state publicly to all Bengals fans, “I will do everything in my power to help the Cincinnati Bengals win a Super Bowl;”

THAT Mike Brown will hire a general manager, drastically expand the scouting department and relinquish all control of player personnel;

THAT all training, rehabilitation and medical facilities are considered best-in-class compared to other NFL teams;

THAT the management fill the team only with players who fit the system, both mentally and physically, and are not reluctant to makes changes to player personnel when needed, regardless of cost or loyalty concerns;

THAT offensive and defensive line depth is considered the top priority for all player personnel decisions;

THAT all decisions made by ownership, management, staff and players, both on and off the field, are judged only by this criterion: “Does this help the Cincinnati Bengals win a Super Bowl?”

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jim tressel

October 13, 2011

Will Cinci be invaded by a bunch of fat humps in sixe XXXL 18 jerseys or will all those seats just be empty this year? I would think the fountain square Greater's is losing a LARGE amount of business this weekend.

Carlos Dunlap continues to get pressure along with the rest of the defensive front and this has made up for a great number of defeciencies in other areas. Also how could you not like the look of the Red Rifle over Gabbert last week. Although to be fair Gabbert has no one of Green or Gresham's talent to throw it to. Bernard Scott has to be due to get about 15-20 touches this week as everybody waits for Benson to get the hammer sooner rather than later.

I hope the colts being in full on "suck for luck" mode helps propel the bengals to victory, but with anything bengals I expect the worst and hope for something just mildly better than whatever vomit MB is trying to shovel me this week. Sadly we're still a couple weeks away from shots of Jim Tressel in a colts sweatervest which would have made this game a much better watch.

May 31, 2011

The NFL may not even exist this year. That leaves college as the only thing to feed my football crack addiction. Previously on life support for this upcoming season due to several suspensions, tOSU football for 2011 (and likely the next few years) officially died yesterday. Dark times for Ohio football indeed.

Though the city of Cincy does not really follow tOSU (and many hate them), they are my college football team of choice. They serve a useful purpose in a sports fandom for me that consists of the Bengals, Reds and Knicks...they actually win. Given the amount of pain the Bengals and Knicks in particular bring to the table, this is not an insignicant thing for my sanity. And it is now gone. Which sucks.

For the usual, knee jerk, "OMG SHAME ON U OSU" reaction, see Greg Doyel's column. For a more balanced take, even though it comes from a tOSU blog, see Eleven Warriors. The cliff notes: Tressel's cover up was far worse than the crimes (in fact, they aren't even crimes, just some kids selling their own private property basically).

One common reaction was that Tressel was very stupid to cover up and lie about what appears to be pretty minor infractions. So how could he be so dumb? Here's why he did it, and here's why it wasn't really dumb:

First, read Doc's column where he touches on the fact that Tressel sold everyone a fake sanctimonious image. Apparently Tressel even wrote two books about how to do things the right way. Anyone in Ohio can tell you Tressel's image was crucial to his popularity and success.

Second, realize this fact: The current system of big time college football (and basketball), where players cannot be paid for the massive revenues they generate, guarantees the existence of a black market for their services. This is just economics and human nature 101. Big time college football is inherently corrupt.

Therefore, when you operate in the world of big time college football, if you want to do things the right way, your righteousness will be under permanent assault. Eventually, you will slip up, give in, make a mistake or just totally aquiesce under this siege. And that's the biggest problem Tressel and others who put up a sanctimonious image face when coaching big time college football: when your entire image depends on doing things the "right way" and doing things the "right way" is an impossibility, then there is no choice but to cover up things done the "wrong way" and hope to get away with it.

The cover up was not dumb by Tressel, it was his only choice given the image he chose to sell.

Final Thought: college football coaching differs from the NFL in that college coaches can achieve an institutionalized status that just isn't possible at the NFL level (with a small handful of exceptions that mostly ended decades ago). They can establish their own empire. Become almost a political figure in some sense (state employees after all). Think JoePa at PSU. There's a reason Tressel's nickname was Senator Sweatervest. That attracts a certain type of personality that has calculating ambition. And those people will do almost anything to keep their position and build their power.

Look no further than Brian Kelly and Notre Dame. A student was killed due to gross negligence at his practice and he will not take personal responsibility. He just achieved the job of his dreams. A lifetime of work completely paying off. And then a kid dies. No way he was letting that prevent him from living his dream. It's awful. But that's college football. It is a machine that produces shitty behavior. Getting made at the individual components of that machine is pointless.